Covid: Halton residents demand exemption from Liverpool City Region tier 3 rules

Thousands of people in Halton have asked for their area to be removed from the tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions that were recently imposed on businesses and residents in the Liverpool City Region.

The petition - backed by 3,400 - argues Halton and the wider Runcorn area should be governed by Cheshire's rules.

It asks the government to "take us out of the Liverpool City Region and put us in medium lockdown where we belong".

Halton Borough Council joined the Liverpool Combined Authority in 2014.

The petition was started last week after the government and Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram placed Merseyside's five boroughs - Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral, Knowsley, St Helens - as well Halton in Cheshire under the toughest tier 3 rules.

One resident who signed the petition said: "I was born and brought up in Widnes and the postal address says Widnes, Cheshire not Liverpool, Merseyside or anything else. How about checking with the residents and taxpayers before you decide to change the council boundaries?"

Another added: "On my birth certificate I was born in Runcorn, Cheshire not Liverpool City Region."

The latest coronavirus figures show the number of new cases recorded in Halton in the seven days to 15 October was 438, down from 517 the previous week.

The number of cases per 100,000 people fell from 399.5 to 338.5 during the same period.

In Liverpool, the rate has dropped from 684.7 to 606.6, with 3,021 new cases recorded in the week leading up to 15 October - down from 3,410 the previous week.